180 years ago, famous mathematician Évariste Galois was killed in a duell. He was only 20 years old. And why? Just because of a girl. Her name was Stéphanie-Félicie Poterine du Motel, the daughter of a physician.
Today, 32 years ago, the world's most famous puzzle started to spread all over the world, infecting the population with addiction and curiosity about its solving.
On the 7th of June in the year of our Lord 1742, Prussian mathematician Christian Goldbach wrote a letter to his famous colleague Leonard Euler, which should make history. Well, at least in the mathematical world. In this letter Christian Goldbach refined an already previously stated conjecture from number theory concerning primes to his friend Euler, which by today is known as the famous Goldbach conjecture.
"It is not certain that everything is uncertain." is one of the many profound insights that philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) published in his seminal work entiteled "Pensées" (Thoughts, published in 1669). He literally had versatile scientific interests, as he provided influential contributions in the field of mathematics, physics, engineering, as well as in religious philosophy.